Stasis
by m.tarnina
Summary: AU. After Grougaloragan's death in the Ogrest's Chaos, the White Dofus ends up in Bonta. Many years later, the dofus hatches.. Rated for shushu, contrary (sometimes outward rebellious) dragons, bad attempts at romance, an eniripsa who definitely isn't a tomb raider, dead-or-crazy canon characters and a (figurative) hard-boiled frog. Cover image by Didier Descouens. Discontinued.
1. Prologue

Igole! Igole, heel, boy. Come back here, come on. What's... what have you found, eh? Not dangerous, I hope? Come here.

Whew. Down, Igole. Let's see what you've caught. That much of a treasure, huh? Is it a dead fish? You know what the missus thinks on the subject of these... a-ha! Should have watched me, boy. Come on, stop growling.

Well, now. Pretty. Wonder how it got here. Hush, boy. Let me...

 _revengetoosmartforowngoodknowledgeseekerirresponsibleunthinkingnoideahowluckyheis_

Ow! Have you seen that? Guess we'd better keep this cube away from small hands. Curiosity- but I'm being silly. It must have been friction, it's just statically charged. I'm sure it's nothing dangerous.

But definitely worth researching.

* * *

A couple of years later

* * *

"Oh, dear, oh, dear, why are we going in there, into this water, yuck!"

"Quit your whining, Freya. All the world is soaked through now."

"Not all, ick! You just insist on going where it's still a swamp, a muddy swamp. With seaweed, yeew..."

"My dear, one searches for apis under an api tree and for treasure in a temple. Those half flooded ones are best. Less competition."

"Ooh, I look like a wet gobbal! There's goop in my fur, yuck... aah! You vile, terrible aboon! You dragoturkey! You're laughing? Take that! Take that for my poor fur, and that! That'll teach you to push women into mud! Take that! Stop cackling, you-!"

"Sorry, sorry... you're better than a jester, though. Hey!"

"You're a vile man, Hyperion. I'll give you that in writing."

"I'll frame it and hang it in the ballroom. Tell you what, let's try this hall."

"The most seaweed-filled one? Are you out of your mind? Hey!"

"Smells good to me."

"Smells rotten to me. We should have stayed in Bonta."

"And fight tooth and nail for my inheritance? No, thank you."

"Staircase. Look, a staircase! Maybe it leads somewhere dry."

"Don't think so. Hey, kitty, you've got a sixth sense and no mistake."

"It's a pearl?"

"Better. See the size of this thing? Kamas against filberts it's a real dofus."

"You're never gonna sell it."

"Sell it or not, I'll gain something. A dofus is a smile of the gods."

* * *

Two centuries later

* * *

"Root beer! Buy my root beer! Best beer in Bonta!"

"Buy my beer! I'm the official supplier of the Promachid parties! Our richest patricians can't be wrong!"

"Our richest patricians don't buy on market stands, Meunier."

"What do you know, merchant of gobbal piss?"

"What do I know? What? If I surprise you, I'll drink an entire mug of that wodent-poison you're selling, deal?"

"No way. No free beer for you."

"I wouldn't take this poor excuse of yours if you paid me. All I'm trying to do is show you that the Promachids know even less about you than you know about them."

"You're welcome to try. But if you tell me anything I haven't known before, you'll move your stand and stop yelling into my ear."

"Not gonna happen. You move."

"You just don't have anything new to say. Weak bluff, pal."

"All right, listen. The Promachids used to have a dofus in their ballroom, a real one, certified by Crespin."

"And that's the surprise? Everyone knows that."

"What they don't know is the dofus hatched."

"What?"

"Hatched! Split right in half, in the middle of a party."

"And, I suppose, a dragon came out. After, lessee, two hundred years? They've had this dofus ever since the Flood."

"A dragon, and..."

"And what?"

"A baby."

"A baby? You want me to believe this? Heh! That's rubbish. Just admit it, you lost."

"One of their sadida servants told me, a real honest baby-"

"Move your stand."

"Meunier!"

"Move, or I'll tell the head of the guards you let your chickens perch over the vats."

"Wait till I tell him something!"

* * *

 _Author's note: I swear there are going to be descriptions later on :). Also - to get rid of my paralysing perfectionism I've decided to send this story to you as I write it. It's fully planned (I know, more or less, what happens next), but not written in advance like my previous stories were. I am painting myself into a corner, which is sometimes the best course of action, and hoping not to stick to the paint. But if there's a long hiatus - you'll know why._


	2. A Bontarian Noble House

As he reached for the ruler, Yugo saw something move in the corner of his eye. It was the curtain, flapping on the sea breeze, nothing that should take his mind off work.

With utmost care, hunched over the table, he drew a line, then another, then his knee hit the shelf underneath the table, again. One of Adamai's notebooks, which had been crammed into the shelf, fell into his lap. Without looking, Yugo put it on his brother's table. He always kept his own notebooks out in the open.

The curtain flapped. Yugo measured out a line with his compasses, absently scratching his neck...

"Look what I've got!"

He nearly knocked his own hat off. A white dragon was staring at him, with brilliant blue-rimmed eyes, sprawled on the geometry homework and sticking a shiny thing right under Yugo's nose. It was so close it made the boy's eyes cross.

"I'm busy" he muttered, aiming for the sort of tone mum would use, but it obviously didn't work. Adamai snorted. "What with?" he asked, craning his neck so far their heads almost knocked together.

"Drawing?"

"We were supposed to solve the problem from chapter twelve today" Yugo reminded.

"So?"

"So I'm nearly done."

The dragon scrambled off the table to the floor, an edge of his translucent wing catching at some papers. Yugo bent down to retrieve them.  
"So, you're done, as in, free, right?"

"I'm not done yet, and you haven't even started" there was a mud stain on one of the papers, and it was definitely shaped like a dragon's scale.

"I'm not going to" said Adamai, "take a look."

He tossed onto the papers a rainbow-coloured, tear-shaped ogrine which rolled forwards until it hit the ruler and stopped.

"What's an ogrine to do with your homework? And where did you get it?"

"From uncle Piracmon's workshop. Saw him making it. Cool, eh?"

"Adamai. You stole an ogrine?"

"He'd give me one, if I asked."

"Why didn't you ask?" Yugo wanted to know, but Adamai had already grabbed the shiny little thing and put it into a small canvas bag he was wearing. "What will mum say?"

"Nothing, cause she'll never know. Besides, she wouldn't care."

"You shouldn't steal."

"I took it from uncle, who's family, so it's not stealing."

"You didn't ask to take it" Yugo reminded him, but Adamai just rolled his eyes. He hopped onto the table again, ruffling the papers, and twisted himself to rest on one elbow, look Yugo in the eye and solemnly ask "D'you like maths?"

"Huh?"

"I've asked" the dragon said, slowly and clearly "if you like maths."

"You'll get mud on everything" experimentally, Yugo tugged on a corner of a paper that the dragon's behind was weighting down, but the paper made a tearing sound, so he let it go.

"You don't" opined Adamai. "Why bother with it, then? To earn a pat from mum?"

"Not for school, but for life it is we learn" Yugo said solemnly, but Adamai laughed out loud.

"What life?"

Yugo, who didn't really know, shrugged.

"You do whatever they tell you, never even asking why."

"You do the exact opposite thing and never think why, either" the boy returned.

"You know perfectly well they don't need us here" the dragon summed up, sliding down to the floor. Some of the papers, scooped by his tail, rustled off the table.

"They're ashamed of you just like they're of me."

"Nobody's ashamed of you-" Yugo started, but Adamai had already snorted, stomped and slammed the door behind him, leaving Yugo alone in the school room.

* * *

Yugo rubbed the muddy streaks off his papers (with a handkerchief), carefully put them in order, took his time to finish the homework properly. When everything was arranged in a neat stack on the table, he glanced onto the clock in the corner and groaned inwardly. So much time until dinner!

For a moment he really wanted to be a xelor, to be able to push the Great Clock a week forwards, when their mathematics and geography teacher, an elderly grey-haired osamoda, was supposed to get back from his family visit. Or at least two days forwards... uncle's alchemy lessons were always interesting. Even Adamai, who kept breaking things, liked them.

It helped Yugo's mood, a little, to imagine his brother knock a retort off the table, and then trade puns with the uncle's assistant while cleaning up. For now, though, he had nothing to look forward to, a sea of unoccupied time.

Having locked the school room, he sauntered off, hands in his pockets, along the corridor. With a nod, he greeted the statue of their half-legendary ancestor, the famous feca Bellerophont, who stared at comers-by imperiously from beyond the bend. On the wall behind the statue, made up in gold paint, there was a family tree Yugo could redraw from memory, if he needed - it was commissioned by Pentesilea, the granddaughter of Hyperion who increased the family fortune so much by treasure-seeking just after the Flood (not that his descendants would admit to it out loud - the Promachos estate was as old as the city itself) and who, being the the youngest, but most clever, of the old Pallas's sons, took over as the patriarch.

Yugo's steps sank into the soft carpet. This time of the day the servants would have already finished cleaning, the grown-ups were still away at their various occupations, and the house was filled with well-dusted silence.

He passed by the ballroom door, so large he couldn't see the upper edge of it even craning his neck, and stopped at the stair. It would lead him up, to the bedrooms. A little further in the corridor the door downstairs, to the servants' rooms and kitchens, and Yugo caught a very tempting smell coming from there. He loved api cake. He suddenly realised he was licking his lips and felt hot, even though there was nobody there to see it. He rubbed his neck. Of course he wasn't hungry!

With a glance over his shoulder, Yugo went downstairs, following the smell of cake.

* * *

The narrow corridor was quite well lighted, with lots of pinkish sunlight that came in through the windows underneath the ceiling. Truth be told, Yugo didn't need light to find the kitchen. The smell of cake and clanking of dishes from behind the sadidan beaded curtain were enough.

One of the girls, Thea, probably, was laughing out loud. Yugo pushed the wooden beads aside.

Thea, a huge brown apron wrapped around her several times, was trying to catch her breath, leaning on the edge of the sink, while Ella, grinning wildly, towelled off a plate. She put it on a stack of other plates, then she flicked the towel. Thea stood up straight, looked her friend in the eye, and they both burst out in giggles.

"Oh, all right, you two" Angelica walked out into the open, brushing something off her hands "we'll see if I'll hear you laugh after you've broken something". She picked a plate, held it to the light, tipped, tipped again and clicked her tongue in a show of disapproval, provoking another spasm of laughter from the green-haired girls.

Angelica herself had a silvery green, willow-leaf-coloured braid pinned around her head and always dusted white with flour. She came from the kingdom of Sadida before Yugo and Adamai were even born, and when it turned out that bontarian women, even much younger than she was, can't keep up with a young dragon, she became the boys' nursemaid. When Adamai came into his reason and calmed down a little, she went back to the kitchen.

And her api cake was the best.

Yugo watched her, red-cheeked, chuckling and teasing Thea and Ella in the kitchen, lit pink by the setting sun - and he both wanted to come in and felt that he should leave. A gust of cold air from the corridor made him flinch and clack the beaded curtain.

"Master Yugo!" called Ella. Angelica looked over her shoulder.

"O, come right in, love. Why stand there?"

So in he went, rubbing his neck, cheeks burning.

"Thought you've forgotten where we were" the cook admonished him gently.

"Oh, but Adamai" Thea butted in "came over today."

"He came and went, like a breeze."

Yugo perched on the edge of a chair that was pushed to him, trying not to look too closely at the scrubbed-to-grey tabletop and the cake that filled the air with mouth-watering smells of api, spices and autumn in its full colour.

"He wouldn't even stay for the cake. Nigella, hand me the forks, please. And wash your hands! Althea, I told you not to leave dish towels in the sink. I'll make tea, no, Yugo, sit down, I'm not too old to carry a kettle yet. Much tired with study, you two?"

"No" Yugo didn't actually feel tired at all. He took the mugs and plates Thea brought and set the table while the young sadidan was trying to untangle the belt of her apron. Ella, using her apron to wipe her hands, was going round the table, studying the labels on the ceramic jars that stood in the middle, one of them lidless and filled, instead of herbs, with a bouquet of fresh flowers.

"Nigella, where is-? Thank you." Angelica carefully spooned the tea out of the jar. Yugo turned in his chair to watch the old lady fill the teapot, put her cast iron kettle away and fold the wash cloth she was holding it through. "Adamai claims you haven't a minute for yourselves."

Yugo chuckled. "Better that, than doing nothing all day."

"Quite right. Hear that, girls?" Thea and Ella traded looks, then both bit their lips. Yugo pushed a wooden trivet closer for Angelica to put the teapot on it. The tea smelled almost as nice and autumny as the cake.

"Well, so what are you up to?"

The mug was nice and warm in his hands. "Today we just had some geometry homework, because Conrad had to go so suddenly."

The sadidans nodded. Ella pushed a strand of hair out of her eyes and behind her ear.

"But he promised to show us how astrolabe works when he's back" said Yugo.

"Like those sailors use?" Thea leaned closer to listen, because she had an intense love for everything that had to do with sea. Yugo nodded.

"Wow!"

"I'd say it's silly" Ella took a sip of her tea before adding "Well, it's not like you two are gonna go sail the seas, right? What d'ya need it for?"

"Adamai says the same thing" admitted Yugo.

"He's wrong" Angelica put her mug on the table with an authoritative tap. "You can never know what'll come in useful. When I was your age, I didn't want to learn cooking, and look at me now."

"You got married back then" muttered Ella, but Thea glared daggers at her.

"Whenever there's a chance to learn, you have to take it" the cook stated. They sat in silence, for a while, drinking the fragrant tea, before Yugo asked "When did Adamai come?"

"Not long ago. An hour, maybe. But he was in an awful hurry" Thea said, and Angelica added "He just brought the flowers and left."

"That's a first, by the way" said Thea, tapping her finger on a petal. Yugo's stomach clenched. "Anything wrong?"

"I don't think so..."

"He just wanted some nut cake" Ella pushed her mug away "that's all."

"He'd have had it anyway. And he could have waited for the fresh api cake, but he was wearing his cloak-"

Suddenly Yugo knew exactly where his brother was. He pushed his plate back.

"Yugo?"

"Thank you so much, but I have to go!"

* * *

He dashed through the streets of Bonta, pressing the hat to his head. What if Adamai had chosen another zaap? Or hid in the cargo hold of some ship? It was obvious what the dragon was doing, but logic alone couldn't tell Yugo how, even if the ogrine pointed at a zaap... Yugo collided with someone, shouted an apology, not looking as he ran further. He knew, When he started thinking about it, he had doubts, but when he stopped, he was sure again. He crossed the street, closely avoiding a gobbal. City limits. Zaap's nearby. Yugo made himself run. He felt, somehow, the portal open.

His knees hurt, there was a void in his chest. I can't make it! he thought. Suddenly he saw among the trees a blue surface framed in a stone ring, and against the blue a black silhouette, with a white tail peeking out from underneath the cloak.

Yugo rushed ahead. No breath left to call, but he managed to catch the tip of Adamai's tale.


	3. The Tipsy Tofu

The Tipsy Tofu Inn is nested in the very gorge that hides the road to Bonta, shielding it from the wind that whistles among the rocks. Not many travellers visit it, even though it's the last human abode they pass by on the way from baker villages to the nearby zaap. But then, most of those who want to get to Bonta go by sea.

Maybe it's because of the mountains that tower over the inn and the zaap, gray and crackled, as if Orgest himself threw them down here in a fit of rage. The few gnarly pine trees cling to the rock faces, and the narrow, windy paths lead more often into chasms than to the other side of the mountains.

Elgin tapped his pencil on the map. If he could get any information less than twenty years old... Blindly, he reached for his tea mug, but hit one of the scrolls instead, which rolled down to the floor.

"I hear you're looking for a team" the scroll landed on the paper-strewn table. Eniripsa propped himself on his elbows, craning his head to look at the newcomer. A sacrier. The dull amber shine of the lamp made his tattoos resemble streaks of shadow. One ear torn a little, a long whitish scar across chest. Smiling like someone, who knows exactly what he wants in life and gets just that, the sacrier pulled a chair up, turned it backrest towards the table and sat down, looking curiously at the eniripsa. Elgin gave him a friendly nod. He should do.

"What's the job?"

The eniripsa reached under the table. Then, with his foot, he pulled the haversack closer before fishing another parchment out and spreading it on the maps. The sacrier tipped his head and squinted in an obvious effort to make something out of the unfamiliar letters.

"This is dragon script" Elgin said quietly, trying to coax the other's curiosity into working, because everybody who ever studied would have known the dragon runes had been deciphered before the Flood. "From Silar's manuscript."

The sacrier leaned on the table, looking him in the eye. His ear tips were trembling, or was it just the light?

"Silar" Elgin went on "is out main source on the Dragon Brethren, the Elder Folk who inhabited this world before it was discovered by gods themselves. Along with his brother he tried to learn their wisdom-"

"Silar? And his brother - Karibd?"

"That's the two."

"Those madmen who dragged shushu into our world?"

"They also gave us the zaap network and several other useful things" Elgin snarked. He began to roll the parchment up slowly and carefully.

"True, Karibd and Silar did end up in Shukrute, but what they were looking for was allies in their revenge, first and foremost. Blinded with this purpose, they forgot what was really important. Consider zaaps" the eniripsa leaned over the table. "The Elder Folk must have understood the nature of space in ways we can't even dream of! They could use the geometry of the universe itself! How much knowle-"

With a screech, the sacrier moved his chair back.

"The brothers read about them in a book" said Elgin, straightening up. " A really old book that I have reasons to assume came to be kept here, after some adventures."

He pulled a drawing from his mound of papers, a cross-section of a gloomy looking castle, and pushed it towards the sacrier, who only deigned to one glance. He took a much longer time staring into Elgin's face.

"Katrepat. It's the Katrepat castle. You want to rob the Katrepat castle."

"Just a quick trip to the library.

The sacrier giggle. "The library in a castle that nobody got out of for twelve years?"

"Which is why I need an expert treasure-hunter" the eniripsa smiled his most disarming grin.

Grinning right back, the sacrier replied "What you need is a visit at your goddess's temple, one where they cure crazy."

With that, he got up and went to the bar, nodding at the inn-keeper. Putting his chin on his folded hands, Elgin watched the ecaflip woman, some twenty kilos beyond being called a kitten, pour a mug of beer.

He sighed. Expert help was hard to find in these parts, and he was running out of money.

The inn, cosily darkish, was nearly empty. In a corner, by a small lamp, a pair of ecaflips were trying to win a cardgame against a shiny bald enutrof. Elgin didn't think he could get the old man to give up stripping them bare, and the ecaflips had said no yesterday.

He picked his mug, cold like a corpse. Ugh. He was stiff all over, himself. Standing up, he heard his wings crack. Maybe I can find someone in the baker villages, he thought, putting the mug on the counter. He yawned and stretched. Or I could go on my own, without bodyguards. The castle has probably been abandoned for some entirely mundane reason, and a little care should suffice.

He didn't feel like going to sleep yet, but he wasn't really awake, either. Some fresh air would do him good.

* * *

The air outside the inn was definitely fresh, even crisp. Elgin buttoned his jacket up, pushed his hands into his pockets and walked briskly towards the zaap. He should be able to see the shape of the castle against the sky, although it was definitely too cold to read the signpost "Katrepat" and the addition made to it by someone with an odd sense of humour ("Don't go near the castle.. aargh"). There was a nice navy blue tone to the sky.

"Ugh, you ninny!" a bush beside the zaap said. Then it rustled wildly. The eniripsa pricked his ears, being a life-long researcher of all things odd.

"You only think of yourself" the bush accused. "No, you don't think at all. Mummy does the thinking."

Another voice, higher and sort of younger, but definitely wet, stated "You stole an ogrine and ran from home, that's very self-reliant."

"I've done something."

"Something. Sure. Could it have been a less stupid something? What were you going to do next? To hurt mum worse?"

Slowly, carefully Elgin skirted the bush, which gave an indignant snort.

"Right, protect her feelings. She already has me, why would she need a kid who opens zaaps with his hands?"

The bush rustled, as if tugged suddenly, while the voice went on, squeaking mockingly "Oh dear, oh dear, what's that, if mummy sees this, she'll be unhappy!"

A white silhouette glowed ghostly in the dark. Part of it seemed covered with a black cape. It looked almost, but not quite, like a stocky child - in any case it was humanoid and had its hands on its hips.

"Wanna go back to her?" it asked with a toss of its head. "Be my guest, make yourself a zaap."

Lady, Elgin thought, if that's what I think it is, I'll write you a sonnet or better. He cleared his throat.

The ghostly pale boy jumped and landed on all fours, staring at the eniripsa from below. His eyes were huge, round and black like deep, deep wells, deeply set over a longish snout.

"I come in peace" Elgin said, raising his hands, palms towards the dragon. Dragonette. According to what he knew from the old books, it couldn't have been older than fifteen.

"Who are you?" it hissed. Behind the dragonette's back the bush rustled frantically.

"Elgin Ravenwood, an eniripsa" he said, pushing his hat back a little, so the dragon could get a clear look at his face. "And you?"

The dragon tilted his head, studying him (was dragon eyesight more sensitive than human?), but the rustling intensified, as if a storm shook the bush.

"Calm down, Yugo" the dragon said.

"I can't get out" moaned his companion. In the tangle of black leaves and branches it was hard for Elgin to tell, but he thought he saw like a hat-wearing boy.

Lady of the words, two sonnets.

The dragon, with a long-suffering sigh, nodded at Elgin, turned and got to work extricating Yugo. Eniripsa, hands shaking, dashed to help. A poem came into his head, one he read in the library of a bontarian scholar, and he recited the line about running away and soaring in the air, but the dragon just snorted. A twig snapped.

"You don't like poetry?" asked Elgin.

"That was poetry?"

"Did I pronounce it wrong? I've learned your language from books, if you could-"

"My language?"

The dragon narrowed his eyes. Elgin hastily explained "Only the written form, obviously-"

"Dragons have their own language?"

"Well, not all of them, but the eliatrope dra-" The black wells were staring at him intently.

"You're not... an eliatrope dragon?"

The dragon shrugged. "No idea, really. Up, Yugo" he caught the boy's hand and dragged him out of the bush. Yugo cried out.

"You were talking about portals" Elgin said.

"Zaaps?"

He nodded. The other boy swallowed loudly.

"He doesn't like them" the dragon explained, a shade ironically, but Yugo sneezed, so Elgin offered "How about we talk about it over hot tea?"

* * *

Yugo had met eniripsae before. He knew for a fact that they speak softly, using long words, sit up straight, keep their hands in their laps and wear long, flowing clothes and plaited sandals.

"Exactly!" Ravenwood shouted. And he snapped his fingers in the air, over Adamai's head. Yugo gripped the edge of his chair, eyes on his brother, who didn't blow fire - he just grinned crookedly.

The eniripsa flicked his wings. He stretched himself over the table to tap a point on the map.

"Always knew dragons were smart" he said, and Yugo very much disliked the mad happy gleam in his eye as he looked up at Adamai.

An eniripsa in a leather jacket and boots, who kept his want tucked behind his hat band. Straw hat. Yugo wasn't sure why it was this detail that made him uneasy, but he did tax the hat hung on the back of Ravenwood's chair.

"So it's here, yeah?" Adamai squinted, staring at the map, and before the eniripsa had time to confirm, he said "I'm in. When do we go?"

"What?"

"Goddy-too-shoes wasn't listening" the dragon sing-songed.

"In a word, Yugo" the eniripsa cut in, sitting back, "you two want to be back home..."

"In Bonta" Yugo started, but Adamai elbowed his side, hard.

"and I'm studying the eliatropes, where they came from, where they've gone and all that" Ravenwood continued "so we have a goal in common, and this is the way to get there."

He tapped the map.

"Years ago the Katrepat castle was famous for its great library. They say" the eniripsa looked at Yugo solemnly over steepled hands "they even have an original copy of Karibd and Silar's book, with their notes."

"The inventors of zaaps?"

A light twinkled deep in the eniripsa's eye "Karibd and Silar didn't invent zaaps, Yugo. They read about the basics of how they work in a book."

"All right, but I don't know how they work" the boy's hand went to rub his neck "if you're trying to learn-"

"What I'm trying to learn about is your people."

"I'm from Bonta" the boy started, but Adamai interrupted him "People who can open zaaps in thin air, right?"

"Right. The eliatropes, Dragon Brethren, The Elder Folk."

"I don't think I'm one of them" Yugo mumbled to the paper-strewn table.

"I do" Adamai said with conviction. "You've got a dragon brother, don't ya?"

Yugo laughed awkwardly, but Adamai said "Do we have a plan?"

"Mhm..." Ravenwood dug his mound of papers for a large sheet. He spread it on the table. The drawing was a cross-section of a castle with tall spires, built on a rock that had lots of corridors in it.

"We come from underneath-"

"Why?" slipped Yugo's mouth. The eniripsa turned to him and the boy looked down, gripping the edges of his chair.

"Good question. See, the surface road, through the town, is most probably blocked or unsafe, since nobody's been out of the castle for some-teen years-"

"Nobody? What's in there?"

The eniripsa shrugged, moving both his shoulders and his wings.

"Who knows. Lacking eyewitnesses, we can only guess. The locals say it's a ghoul nest, that they kidnap babies and so on, but that's a typical story, every abandoned castle accumulates these. I'd bet on a sinkhole in the most inconvenient place, because enutrofs used to live in these mountains, until they carried all the ore out. Nothing to be scared of, as long as you walk slowly and mind your step."

"Come on, Yugo, don't be a girl" said Adamai.

"But..." the eniripsa, his hands under his chin, nodded slightly to show Yugo he was going to answer the question. "But you're just going to take the book?"

"Sure, why not?"

"What if someone's living there after all? And it's their book?"

"If we meet someone who cares about having it" Ravenwood explained "I'll ask to transcribe it. But this will take time, just so you're warned."

"See, Yugo?" Adamai elbowed him in the same spot he did before. "That's no stealing. That's adventure!"


	4. The Castle of Katrepat

Yugo pulled the edge of his hat to cover his neck, but it slipped out of his fingers, rode up and let the cold wind through, right into his ear. "Can't we just get back?" he asked, hopeful, but Ravenwood and Adamai were staring at the grating as if they were trying to move it by will alone. Or possibly as if they needed more light.

To warm himself up, Yugo started pacing, five steps from a rock wall to a rock wall, dry dust cracking under his feet. He didn't really care to look at it, although in the cold-water shade of the castle there wasn't much to be seen. The ragged black wall towered over them. It had several holes, all spewing the same thick foul air, or at least Yugo thought so, because his companions didn't seem to notice. The only hole they could reach was blocked with a solid grating, covered thickly in muck, but no rust at all.

There was a screech of metal. The eniripsa hissed. He muttered a few words he wouldn't be allowed to say back home.

"That's now how you do this" said Adamai. Yugo started for the other end of their chasm, towards the inn, when the dragon pushed Ravenwood aside and gestured at him to stay there. He tossed his cloak back, stretched his fingers, and Yugo, who knew what would come next, pulled the eniripsa a little further away.

A cloud of orange fire exploded from the dragon's mouth and splashed into the grating, roaring like an alchemical furnace.

Yugo cast a wistful glance over his shoulder, on the jagged, spiky grey rocks that had the road home somewhere among them, but then Adamai coughed, spat and called, a touch hoarsely "Just a moment and we can go in!" Ravenwood whistled (which eniripsae never do). "Will you light a lantern, Adamai?" he asked, letting his sack slide down to the ground.

* * *

The dragon did light it with only a token protest, but even in this narrow corridor the lantern was only enough to draw trembling shadows from every half-brick that jutted out of the wall. Irregular spots of sooty black floated over Adamai's head and underneath Yugo's feet. He wouldn't even be surprised if a shadow screamed when stepped on.

Their steps echoed from the rough walls. The boy had an overwhelming feeling of being seen and heard, and allowed to walk into something's (or someone's) home. Glancing up, all he saw were thick, heavy clouds of blackness.

Adamai screamed.

Yugo threw himself backwards, his hands burning. Blue light splashed on the wall.

"I'm fine!" the dragon yelled.

Panting heavily, Yugo watched him get up, one paw pressed to the wall, and massage his ankle.

"Stupid stones underfoot" Adamai was muttering.

Ravenwood, the lantern firmly in his hand, stared at the wall, or at the glowing circle of blue that was stuck to the wall. Without taking his eyes off it, he fished in his jacket pocket for some bit of paper, crumpled it and threw it in. A paper ball fell onto Adamai's nose. "Hey!"

The portal dissolved into darkness. The lantern swung wildly as the eniripsa turned to Yugo. "That was a real portal."

He stepped back and hit the cold wall.

"You really are an eliatrope!"

"Had doubts?" Adamai stood at his brother's side, arms folded.

"A real eliatrope!"

The eniripsa's cry of delight echoed in the corridor and in Yugo's ears, who swallowed painfully. What he wanted to do was yell. He was certain he'd heard a clap of bare feet inbetween the scholar's words. "Nobody alive has seen a real eliatrope!"

Two moons glistened over eniripsa's shoulder. Yugo, with a scream, threw himself backwards, right into the wall.

"We're busy!" Ravenwood spun. He whacked that thing behind him with the lantern, which went off.

Yugo gasped.

"Adamai?"

"Am I a lighter now?" the dragon snorted, but did take the lantern, spit a little flame into it and give back to the eniripsa, lit. Ravenwood squatted, light held high over his victim, with Adamai standing on tip-toes to see over the eniripsa's shoulder. All Yugo could see was a vague outline.

"Out cold" the eniripsa said. "He'll be-"

The outline jumped up, wailing. It swung an arm. Adamai tugged Ravenwood out of reach.

* * *

They stopped, catching for breath, several stories up, judging by the arrowslits and pale moonlight creeping in through them.

"Where... are we?"

"What was that?" gasped Adamai.

Ravenwood chuckled, or maybe just breathed in shakily. "A ghoul. We must be quiet."

Adamai stood to attention and saluted, and then they went on, carefully, along the much drier, nicer looking corridor. The walls were made of stone blocks. Yugo hoped it lead to the exit.

"Fork" the dragon hissed. Ravenwood lifted his lantern to examine the right-hand corridor, then the left-hand one. "Looks like they both go up."

Looks? thought Yugo incredulously, but his only choice was to follow the eniripsa. There was the same cold draft from both corridors, but Ravenwood made his pick. They climbed several flights of heavy stone stairs, past an arched doorway, then another.

Ravenwood swore fiercely.

The hall they were just about to step into was packed with ghouls, and each of them turned at the same time to stare their moonlight stare at the travellers.

* * *

Yugo was the last to get to the door. The others were already pushing the heavy panels when he dashed under their arms, tripped and landed sprawled on the wooden floor. A piece of furniture screeched, pushed against the door.

"Sinkhole" Adamai snorted. Catching his breath, Yugo checked if he was wearing his hat, then got up. His lungs were protesting mildly.

The room they were in was large. with tall windows looking out to the jagged mountain range. It probably used to be quite elegant, when the entire castle was, but right now torn, mouldy rags were covering the walls, icy grey in the morning light, and the floor was carpeted with thick dust. The chest of drawers Adamai was pushing, with a tooth-vibrating screech, lacked a drawer.

"Are you helping?" the dragon growled, and Yugo ran to join him at his makeshift barricade.

Ravenwood was circling the room.

"There's no exit!" yelled Adamai. Something rammed the door on the other side. Yugo didn't even get scared, he just pressed his back into the barricade.

The eniripsa ripped a grey ghost of a gobelin from the wall, revealing a smaller door. He put his ear to it. Then he raised his hand, signalling to the boys. "Quiet!"

"Quiet yourself" Adamai snorted. Ghouls on the other side were beating at the door so strongly Yugo lost his balance and fell down to the floor.

Ravenwood pushed the door he was at, stuck his head in, moved back and nodded at the brothers. The chest of drawers creaked.

"Go!" said Adamai. Yugo rushed to the exit. Out of breath he was caught by the eniripsa and dragged into a small corridor.

"Adamai" he moaned, throat aching.

The chest of drawers burst, spewing splinters and a dragon. A black wave of ghouls was licking his heels, but he spat fire at them, never stopping. He dashed forwards, grabbed Yugo's hand.

They ran.

* * *

"Here!" Ravenwood pulled them aside.

"Blind alley!"

Adamai leaned out of a window. "Moat's dry."

Yugo's heart was beating wildly in his chest, as if it wanted out. Moving away from the window, Adamai hit a plinth with his tail, toppling a vase, but the eniripsa caught it just above ground.

"Pandalusian" he opined, turning it in his hands "I'd say-"

He was interrupted by ghoulish moaning. An angular black head went in though the door - and the ghoul collapsed with a crash.

"Contemporary fake." Ravenwood wiped his hands. The ghouls were trying to get in all at once, threading on their downed brother, moaning and wedging each other in the doorway.

"You know, Yugo" the eniripsa remarked "what we could really use now is a portal."

"Adamai could carry us out."

But the dragon shook his head. "Not both at once."

"I don't know how to open them!"

"Think of something."

The ghoul on the floor howled, and Yugo swallowed. There were definitely more heads mumbling in the door than there should be... the ghouls in the back were climbing over those in front. One succeeded. It fell onto the floor like a centipede falls off the wall.

Yugo's hands burned with blue fire...

... and suddenly he, the dragon and the eniripsa were lying on the stone floor. Yugo gasped.

"Woo-hoo!" Adamai's yell shook dust from the ceiling. Ravenwood, with a moan, turned onto his side.

And then there was patter of bare feet and another pack of ghouls blocked the corridor.

* * *

"Get off, bug" Adamai stomped on the ghoul's foot, but wasn't even noticed. Like corks in a stream, they were pulled and pushed along by thick black mass of ghouls in tattered clothes. Yugo wouldn't even know they were out of the dungeon if not for the ceilings. There wasn't enough space to fall down, though Ravenwood did look like he was about to, pale and greenish like the ghouls' eyes.

And suddenly the wave stopped, as if hitting the pier, to beach the three castaways on a stone floor, bruising their hands and knees.

"Well, what is it now?" the woman's voice was cloying, liquorice sweet. Swallowing a groan, Yugo craned his head to look at her.

The centre of a group of ghouls, each carefully combing one strand of her long flaxen hair, the lady lay on a couch, supported by red plush pillows that Yugo found painfully bright against all the dust. The lady was wearing a tone darker... he couldn't really call it "dress", since the garment had less fabric in it than his hat did.

The deep red colour served to underline both the lady's moonlight paleness and the black streaks that crossed her skin, surrounding her lithe arms like bracelets, and her eyes in a way that reminded Yugo of aunt Ergane's bow-meow, specifically the time it tore his star atlas to pieces.

She was staring at him with her irisless eyes, obviously very bored.

"Here's your sinkhole" growled Adamai. The woman yawned, covering her mouth with the back of a thin hand. Yugo noticed a purple glint of a ring.

"Intruders, really?" she said, her voice flat. "I thought you lot have given up for sure."

Ravenwood cleared his throat.

"Fair lady" he began. Adamai snorted, then growled as his ankle got kicked.

"We come from afar" the eniripsa's tone turned dramatic "hearing of your unearthly beauty-"

Squeezing of his hand closed Adamai's mouth.

"I disbelieved the rumours" Ravenwood went on "and I see I have been right to do so, for they do not do justice to you, oh, graceful and kind lady of Katrepat!"

He paused for the effect, but the lady pierced it with a screeching laugh. Ravenwood went on staring at her for a moment before he lowered his theatrically outstretched arm.

Finally, the lady wiped her black-streaked cheek, straightened herself up and said "So cute. I might keep you. For a while."

The stone in the ring flickered as she spoke, though she wasn't moving her hand. But wait... she motioned at the ghouls, and the ring did flash, but it couldn't have caught the sunlight. Clouds just covered it at the moment...

Cold hands grabbed Yugo's shoulders. Another ghoul was dragging Adamai, step by step, towards the couch, never noticing the kicking at his shins or the steady stream of words the dragon couldn't have heard at home.

"Lovely lady, we want nothing-" Ravenwood talked, faster and more frantically every second, but Adamai, struggling in the hands of ghouls, was already made to kneel in front of her. She outstretched the ring-bearing arm in a careless gesture.

Now Yugo saw that the purple glow was coming from the face cut in the ring, from its mouth that opened for an ironic laugh. To the sense that he usually "saw" the world with as a tangle of blue glow, the ring looked as if it had been woven of thick black smoke.

Adamai howled.

Yugo knew that, whatever happens, he can't allow the black smoke to touch his brother. He "saw" its plumes entwined around the lady's arms and legs, concealing the blue light underneath. He had to do something, anything.

Get him out.

He focused all his thoughts on the place where Adamai was fighting and struggling and gnashing his teeth.

"What is that!" the lady shouted, seeing the blue light encircle Adamai. When the portal closed, she screamed. Two ghouls were draped, dazed, on the back of her couch, while a small dragon, wings buzzing, attacked the woman, fist, claw and tooth.

"Ah! Ghouls! Help! Aah! My hair!"

It tangled around her and the disoriented ghouls. Some were still trying to comb it, others just swayed and swayed, several were treading the floor, trying to join the others.

"Take heart, Yugo!" Ravenwood snatched his wand from his hat band. "Back to my back, don't let them surprise you!"

But all Yugo could think of was Adamai. He was by his side in a blink of a portal, easily catching his balance, he ran along the back of the couch, grabbed the lady's (icy!) hand and pulled her ring off.

A horrible yell exploded in his head. Yugo rolled down over the pillows, his elbow slammed into the hard flooring and for a moment all he saw was darkness with small bright spots.

The ice cold ring was stabbing the inside of his fist, the mad scream felt like it was trying to burst his hand open, but Yugo held on with all his strength.


	5. So Where Do We Go Now?

One moment Adamai was fighting that mad broad, the next - curled up on the floor, trying in vain to plug his ears. What the shushu? the thought got lost in the eardrum-ripping scream and vanished.

Then the scream suddenly stopped.

He waited a moment, just to be sure, before opening his eyes, lowering his hands and looking around to see a hefty crowd in the room, a crowd of rather normal people, even if they were dressed in tatters, ghostly pale, and had rather gobbalish expressions. Yugo couldn't have...

"Yugo!" the dragon yelled, starting up despite the pain in his bruised wing. "Yugo!"

He saw the boy right in the centre of a small, round people-less circle. He was curled up tightly, completely still.

Adamai made a clumsy landing by his brother's side.

"Yugo!" hit in the back, the boy hissed a breath and started coughing frantically.

"Elgin!" shouted the dragon.

"I'm" Yugo's voice was hoarse "fine..."

"Yeah, sure, fine." Adamai pushed him up, then dragged towards the middle of the room, where there was more air. Where's that crazy eniripsa? Behind the dragon's back the couch springs groaned. He glanced over his shoulder.

The gal was sitting, head hung low, elbows on her knees, hair covering her face. It was, somehow, a normal length, only reached her waist instead of pretending to be circus tent lines, and there was no black whatsoever on her hands or legs - but she was wearing the same frock and wouldn't fool anybody. Especially not a dragon.

Adamai took a deep breath, getting ready to fry her, but Yugo caught his elbow. The flame stopped in dragon's throat.

"Look" the boy said, opening his fist. Surrounded by a circle of red impressions there was the nutter's ring with a sneering face carved on it.

"Ugly" Adamai rasped. Purple light glimmered in the ring's mouth and he heard "Ugly? Look who's talking, you scaly thing! You terrible, pre-Clock anachronism! You-"

"Whew!" Elgin squeezed out of the crowd and flicked his wings. "I don't know! Maybe yesterday" he called over his shoulder, wand pointed at the boys. "You called?"

"Yugo" Adamai started, but the boy interrupted him. "I think the lady needs help."

Adamai blinked. Normally he'd say something about farm animals flying, but now he just stared at the eniripsa, who did walk up to the couch and said "Hey." There was a glimpse of a green eye through the hair.

"How are you feeling?"

"Gonna do any more crazy?" asked Adamai.

"Even children can see how useless you are!" the squeaky voice shrilled, flickering the ring. "Without me-"

The girl flung herself backwards and hit the back of the couch instead of the floor.

"What children?" the dragon growled. Elgin whistled. He waved his brush over the blonde, then ran to Yugo, to get a look at the purple monstrosity. Nearly poked his nose into the ring.

"A real shushu. Four... no, five elements."

"You're pulling my leg?" Adamai's never seen a shushu before, not really, he just heard of them.

"Uhm" the eniripsa took a pencil out of his pocket to nudge the ring. It glimmered and said "Oh!" in an indignant old lady voice.

"Where did you get it?"

"It's" the girl on the couch said, but stopped when all three of them looked at her. She swallowed.

"It's Shadofang. Um. My monster."

"Ingrate" the shushu growled, "least you could do is thank me for keeping you young all this time!"

* * *

Her name was Evangelyne, she came from a long line of cra, bound to serve the royal family of Sadida. She herself used to live there, not long ago. Really.

But a couple of weeks back her best friend decided to go on a trip, to the small village called Emelka, and try as Evangelyne might, she couldn't stop her. Her friend claimed she'd been given a mission by Sadida himself - can a simple cra really know better than the gods? So in the end she could either let Ami go out on her own (and never look her father in the eye again) or pack a bag.

They left at sunrise and got lost before noon, but after several days of meandering they did reach Emelka, where they found an Oak, mad with pain. They also found a certain idiot and his shushu, and between Ami's sadida powers and a well aimed frost arrow, the girls managed to assist a local innkeeper in saving the village from both these disasters. But they lost their dragoturkeys - and, since the idiot had levelled the inn, its owner decided (taking his friend's advice) to go with them to Sadida and earn some money to rebuild it.

So the girls took off for home on foot, accompanied by the friendly innkeeper and his enutrof pal. The shushu-ridden idiot followed, and in the end all five of them got to Katrepat.

* * *

"The town" Adamai had to prick his ears to even hear the cra talking "was already full of ghouls controlled by my predecessor" she swallowed, "Ragnar. Later... when I was..."

She flinched.

"Oh, we needed him like a tofu needs a diving suit" said Shadofang. If she had shoulders, she'd probably shrug. "Don't put me on the ground!"  
Yugo froze, hand outstretched, but the cra just sighed and continued "He's gone. After that..."

"Your bestie left you with me. Wasn't that best for all of us?"

Evangelyne pulled her knees up to her chin. Adamai knew, without looking at Yugo, that his brother's turned api red, but he was a bit surprised to see Yugo cover the girl's legs with his jacket.

"You have a good heart" she said, blushing and lowering her feet to the floor. "That's why the shushu has no hold over you."

"Hold?" Yugo stared, eyes wide, at the ring on the floor, which glimmered "How do you know? Maybe I just need more time?"

The boy's hands hid in his pockets.

"Don't you worry, Yugo" Elgin's sack thumped on the floor. Adamai, who never thought a full room like this could have such an echo, looked over his shoulder and saw nobody, just a huge door, one panel swaying on its hinges. Well. Not like the locals didn't have their lives. The eniripsa knelt to make rummaging in his sack easier.

"Speaking of time, have you been here long?" he asked, as if they were having tea together.

"Uhm. I don't know. I mean..."

"Have you explored the castle?"

"Actually I spent most of the time here. But I've seen some of it."

"So you'll know where the library is? Ah-a!"

Triumphantly, Elgin presented them with a ball of string.

"Yes, I mean, where it was. A floor above us."

"What do you mean, was?" he measured the string out with his arm, cut a piece and tied a loop. Then he reached for his pocket.

"Shadofang... she... used it all as firewood."

The ring slid off pencil and clanged to the floor.

"She burned the books?" the eniripsa looked the girl in the eye. Biting her lip, she nodded.

"It was boredom itself" said the shushu "some alchemical frou-frou. Nothing about me! Not a word about any shushu! What are you doing? It itches! A vulgar, commonplace string? Magical rings should be worn on chains!"

The eniripsa tugged at the string, maybe a bit stronger than strictly necessary to check the knot, then tossed the makeshift necklace on the cra's knees.

"Burned the books. Lady of words!"

"But they had nothing on shushu" muttered Adamai.

"So what?"

"And that book you're looking for should have something, right?"

Elgin leaned back, propping himself on his hands, and stared into the thin air for a moment, before nodding. "True. Still, that's something only a shushu would do" he growled, squinting at the ring that Evangelyne hung on her neck, looking for all the world as if she'd eaten a lemon.

"Why take her along?" asked the dragon.

"So she doesn't possess anyone else" answered eniripsa. "These things are always found, even in the most remote of ruins. Don't you read books?"

For a moment they were all quiet, even Shadofang didn't screech, praise the Ancient Dragons. He could focus.

"Have you looked in the Sadidan library?" asked Adamai. Elgin snorted. "Good joke."

"We have a large collection of shushu-related texts" Evangelyne said. "Erm. I was going to have a look myself..."

"How long have you been here? The library's in the palace, the palace has been closed since the old king's death-"

The cra gasped.

"and since none of us has ever been to Sadida," Elgin continued "we'll never be able to get around in there."

"Evangelyne has" noted Adamai. Yugo sneezed before adding "And we know what it's like there, from Angelica."

"I'd like to get back as soon as possible..." Evangelyne said.

"We'll go with you!" Adamai laughed out loud. "You want back home, Elgin wants the book, I want to see the world! Everybody's happy!"

He nudged Yugo's arm. "And travels broaden the mind, smart guy."

The boy rolled his eyes, but smiled.

"That's just ludicrous, Adamai." Elgin counted on his fingers "The borders have been closed for twelve years, the book might not even be there, some sadida's stories might have nothing to do with how it's now-"

"You don't have to go." The dragon shrugged, but the eniripsa jumped up, laughing. "Who says I'm refusing? It's a chance of the lifetime!"

"You are all out of your minds" said Shadofang.

"To get Karibd and Silar's book I could even go to Ecaflip's dungeons" Elgin put his wand back into his hat band and set the hat onto his head.


	6. In the Forest

Adamai sat, elbow resting on a dry surface of a broken stump, really really still, because otherwise the bark would tug at his scales. He was staring into the fire. In the corner of his eye he could see Elgin, or at least the hat covering his face, pinkish in the glow, as the eniripsa lay outstretched in the grass, his sack acting as pillow. Yugo was snoring softly, curled at his brother's side, his silly hat on even when he slept.

They skulked out of Katrepat through back alleys, keeping out of the way of the disoriented citizens. Evangelyne doubted if her friends had stayed in the town, and Shadofang agreed with an amount of glee that made Adamai's throat burn, but Elgin wasn't about to try and search for them. He led the group up narrow, winding paths. The dragon just knew (and let the others know that he knew) they would end up in some chasm or another, but miraculously, they didn't - and in the evening they were on the other side of the ridge, just on time for the eniripsa and Yugo to admire the sunset. And be laughed at by the shushu for being "childish".

Afterwards they made camp and drew lots, which was how Adamai came to be watching for something that could creep up to them, while his companions were sleeping. He couldn't feel a soul around. That wasn't bad - he could focus on the sensation itself, and in a completely new, interesting place, too. Yugo, as always, was a plume of bright blue stardust, maybe a bit more intense without the background of the city, which made the grass underneath him pale in comparison - and yet Adamai was conscious of each blade and each leaf. Or he could be, if he wanted. He could perceive each of these faint little brush strokes just as clearly as he perceived his sleeping brother's breathing and heartbeat. Elgin wasn't much less bright than Yugo, but the dragon was puzzled by Evangelyne, curled up under a windthrow and tightly wrapped in a blanket that the eniripsa lent her. Her light was definitely wan, but he couldn't tell why. Was it caused by the shushu ring on her neck? It seemed to glow the very opposite to the light Adamai was used to seeing around every living thing, not simply dark, but sort of a black hole that sucked in everything around it.

But she was asleep, too. He thought.

The dragon pushed himself away from the tree stump. He stretched till his joints cracked, then brushed his scales before walking away, just a little, and lying down on the wet grass. He waited to get used to the wetness, closed his eyes and began his observations.

If he were in Bonta, he'd sense people, hordes of people, even at night, going to and fro, but the forest was asleep. The trees, the piwis in their crowns, and there was a dhreller hole under the roots of that pine tree, just there, and they were asleep, too, a mum and four babies, all hugged close to each other, satisfied and quiet.

Kind of boring, really, especially in comparison with the city bustle. Adamai's consciousness spread wider and wider, further than he could see. There was a boowolf on the prowl somewhere far, way too far to reach them until after sunrise, but Adamai found something interesting much nearer. He remembered the way, then opened his eyes to the ink-black dark.

* * *

Yugo walked, hugging himself, through cold, white void that his footsteps sank into, but he couldn't feel any ground, any floor, nothing...

He was falling, air rush muffling his scream.

And suddenly - there he was, lying in wet, cold grass beside an extinguished bonfire, echo ringing in his head.

He propped himself on his elbow.

His clothes felt like ice. Pale sunlight glistened on Evangelyne's hair that peeked out of her blanket, on Elgin's straw hat, but it failed to wake either of them, the tightly curled cra or the sprawled, snoring eniripsa.

"Adamai?" Yugo cleared his throat and called "Adamai!"

"Yelling again" Shadofang growled beneath the blanket. Somewhere above them, in the bushes, a piwi warbled.

"Yelling, yelling, yelling, from the sunrise."

"Have you seen where he went?"

"I'm not his nanny!"

"Tell me, please." But the shushu just snorted and said nothing.

Awkwardly, as he was stiff with cold, the boy got to his feet. He hissed. Closing his eyes, he rubbed at his temple and grimaced. His palm felt even colder than his head was, but the pain vanished as suddenly as it appeared.

"Adamai!" Yugo called, manoeuvring around a tree stump. Again, he felt a sort of pricking in his head, but it wasn't unpleasant now, more like being poked when someone wants our attention. He focused on the strands of light that made up the world. Flowing, constantly moving, they glittered, but Yugo noticed there were fixed outlines around, a tree, a stone, a piwi. For a while he watched the light-woven bird start from a branch, leaving specks of light behind.

And he saw Adamai, or an image of him, not at all far. He went a couple of steps down the hill, moved some branches aside and saw his brother squatting in front of a dead tree.

Adamai looked over his shoulder and patted a tuft of grass by his side, where Yugo obediently sat down, pulling his knees up to his chin. The tree was bone-white. He sighed, looking at it. "Aren't you scared of getting lost?"

The dragon didn't answer at once, and it occurred to Yugo that maybe he ought to yell at him, like the grown-ups would, but this usually made Adamai vanish for days, which he'd rather avoid. He wasn't a grown-up anyway.

"I know exactly where our camp is" the dragon finally said. "And so do you." His blue-rimmed eyes glittered. "You heard me think at you!"

"Huh?"

Adamai laughed and punched his half-frozen arm.

"We'll need to grill Elgin a little. About all these things."

Yugo looked at the tree.

Fine, tangled web of glittering blue made up the shapes of roots, deep in the ground, a thick trunk and outspread branches, pulsing with light, even though Yugo saw perfectly well that the tree is dead and stripped of bark. And yet, he could distinguish every strand of the fungus in it, every tiny creature munching on wood, all the living things on the tree and around, and even the pale, weak glow of the tree itself. It was dead - but maybe not quite? He couldn't really understand.

"Cool, huh?" asked Adamai. "Why didn't you want to see it before?"

"I couldn't."

"You wouldn't, Yugo" the dragon corrected him, oddly gentle. "I always could. And if you can hear when I thing at you..."

Yugo decided not to ask. He really doubted he could be anything else than a regular boy. Of course, he did acknowledge that some lesser god had taken a shine to him and given him talents, but he wasn't a prophet material and would give this honour away in a heartbeat. And he never heard any godly voices.

They sat, watching the life of a dead tree, until Elgin started calling for them.

* * *

The village roofs were glinting in the sun like icing on a cake. Adamai fluttered a little higher to get a better idea of how the road went, then he dove among threes.

"Village, half an hour away" he reported, standing up on the path, and brushed the dust from his snout. Yugo made a bigger cloud, though, sliding down from the stump he was sitting on.

"Large? Small?" Elgin asked, rummaging in his sack.

"Neither."

"A-ha!" the eniripsa unfolded a map to study it, squinting in the greenish light.

"Let me think... we went through here, then down here... have you seen any streams, Adamai? Yes? So this would be Pineford, the first of the bakers' villages. They pick pine nuts and so on here, nice place to spend a night.

"Can we get any clothes there?" asked Evangelyne from her place underneath a tree, among ferns that reached her neck.

"Ooh, great idea" screeched Shadofang "we could use... but wait, dearie, you haven't thought to take anything from the castle, have you? We're penniless."

The cra's hand clenched on the blanket that she was wrapped in.

"Come on, don't worry" called Adamai "we'll make some money. In Bonta I could-"

"A one-freak show might turn heads in a big city-" shushu began, and the dragon growled.

"Ignore her" said Elgin, still studying the map. "I'll lend you money, but there will be interest to pay in Sadida."

The cra blushed. "You know" she said "I think I'll just wait here."

"Nonsense" the eniripsa folded his map to stuff it into the sack. "It's a cute little town."

"Just what you said about-" Adamai flinched and looked behind him to glare at Yugo, but the boy stood his ground. That's a couple of days away from home for you.

"Nobody will look at you with this dragon around" said Shadofang, glistening on Evangelyne's neck as she rose from the ferns and hasted to pull up the blanket that slid off her shoulder.

"Why don't you toss her into the stream?" asked Adamai rhetorically.

"Someone has to keep her from doing stupid things" Shadofand replied.

"Want to stay in the forest, alone with a shushu?" Elgin piped in.

"I'm sure the piwi will be absolutely delighted" Shadofang giggled, but the cra just let out a sigh as she leaned against a tree.

"I'd rather yell at her without witnesses" she muttered.

For a long while, Elgin stared at her, before finally shrugging. "As you wish. Meet you here later, all right?"

He hoisted the sack onto his shoulders.

"We'll bring you something to wear, I promise" said Yugo, before Adamai pulled him by hand onto the dusty path.


	7. Pineford

Seeing the town from the vantage point of a stone bridge on the stream, Yugo was reminded of picture-books: white houses, fluffy pine trees, brightly coloured little gardens. It was impossibly pretty, sparkling in the sun, and completely unlike Bonta.

The three of them walked down a cobblestone alley, smells of sun-warmed walls and pine resin filling the air. People in brownish clothes were unrolling an awning over a large shop window, and there was a tat-tat-tat of cart wheels on the cobbles nearby. Up to now Yugo always thought of towns as noisy and bustling.

"Get out of the way!" someone shouted. The boy narrowly avoided a hand cart, overfilled with tuberbulbs and veering out of control, despite the efforts of a straw-hat-wearing farmer, barely visible behind the mound of bulbs. One fell and rolled away while the man stumbled forwards and away. He was gone before Yugo had a chance to call.

"Stay close" Elgin said. Yugo trotted alongside him and Adamai, wrapped in his cloak. The walls were white, with dark timber frames, and the human voices were getting louder.

"Berries!" someone was shouting. "Fresh berries! Just picked in the woods!"

"Dyes! Most colourful, a whole rainbow!"

"Rice pudding! Unlimited rice pudding! Buy the best rice pudding from the rice pudding seller!"

"Great" the eniripsa muttered, and then light filled Yugo's eyes.

"Flour! Best flour! Bread grows like crazy!"

"String, I have the strongest string!"

"Fresh gobbal meat! Was frolicking in the meadows just this morn!"

"Planks! Beautiful planks!"

Well, the merchants were just as shouty as their bontarian counterparts. Yugo rarely went to the market, but he knew perfectly well what he was going to see when the black spots stop clouding his eyes.

Colourful strands, heaps of things to sell, lots of people carrying baskets. They weren't as colourful as expected, and there was less variety in fruits and vegetables than he was used to, but that made sense. They can't get citronanas this far from the port before they go bad, thought Yugo. Happy with this reasoning, he grabbed his brother's hand, scanning the crowd for clothes stands and trying not to lose Elgin while at it.

"Hey!" Adamai jerked and Yugo looked at him.

"Watch yourself, okay?"

"Ah!" A fat, apron-wearing ecaflip tripped and fell in between the brothers before Yugo had time to be surprised.

"Are you all right?" he asked, helping the ecaflip up, but the cat pushed him away with a snort.

"Pickpockets!" he growled, turned, tail lashing the air, and marched away among the stands. Yugo felt his cheeks burn. He didn't do anything! On the cobbles there was a somewhat worse for the wear melon that the ecaflip had slipped on. Must have fallen from the nearby table. With his foot, Yugo nudged it towards the gutter.

"Adamai" he began... but where was Adamai?

"Excuse me" a woman said, her tone not apologetic at all, and Yugo moved aside, scanning the crowd for his brother. Well, him, or at least Elgin, who was also out of sight.

* * *

Finding the eniripsa turned out to be easy. All one had to do was stay calm and go where people carrying books were coming from. Yugo had this revelation when, after hearing all the insults he's known before, and a number of completely new ones, nearly stepping on a bow-meow and getting a headache from the attempts to locate Adamai in the tangle of blue life-lights the marketplace was, he leaned against an api tree to clear his head and saw a large stand at the edge of the square, in the shadow of a faded canvas roof, filled with haphazardly heaped books, scrolls and boxes that had papers peeking from under their lids.

In front of it all there was Elgin, gesticulating wildly. As far as Yugo could see, his theatrical gestures failed to impress the book monger, a round, wrinkly like an old api enutrof with a hair-stick in her grey bun. She was watching the eniripsa, her arms folded.

"Five kamas, that's final" she said, when Yugo, having managed to squeeze through the crowd, finally stood by Elgin, panting.

"Daylight robbery" the eniripsa stated. He stroked the brim of his hat, not-at-all-accidentally touching the wand tucked behind his hat band. "Shame on you to rip a poor scholar off!"

"Shame on you to lie to an honest trader, young man. Worthless booklet, dragon dung. I can see your eyes shine. Five kamas."

"It's all mouldy. I've seen blue cheese with less fungus on it."

"Fungus? Where? Show me, and I'll give it to you for free and throw in a copy of 'How to Be a Proper Client'!"

"Elgin-"

"Not now, Yugo. The covers are so stained you can't tell the colour."

Yugo tried pulling at his sleeve again, but the eniripsa just waved his hand, completely engrossed in his explanation about what exactly moisture does to books. Guess he wants her to fall asleep, Yugo thought, covering his mouth. But that's going to take a while. The boy's attention wandered among the stands, motley of colours that they were. Underneath a nearby tree he spotted one that sold cloth in various shades of green - wonder if Evangelyne would like it?

Yugo rocked on his heels, but Elgin's lecture on moisture, stains and moulds was far from the middle. From time to time, he'd pull the eniripsa's sleeve, the eniripsa would mechanically jerk his hand off, and Yugo would put it in his empty pocket. He didn't ever have any lint.

"He can't hear you" Adamai said into his ear. Yugo looked over his shoulder.

"Found the clothes stands" the dragon bobbed his head in the general direction of the tree.

"We have no money" Yugo reminded him. He nudged Elgin, who didn't even pause.

"Come on," Adamai pulled his brother a little away. "He's in his own little world. And" with a crooked smile he reached into his cloak "you don't have to get it from him."

"I don't?"

Despite the general bustle and noise Yugo almost heard ringing when Adamai shook a fat purse in the air. It was embroidered with golden thread against colourful background.

"So, what are we getting her?"

"Where did you get this?"

"Does it matter?" the dragon shrugged.

"Adamai, you have no excuse this time."

"Our cra needs a cloak."

The boy glared at him for a while, and the dragon returned the look, eyes bulging.

"Shucks, you're no fun."

"I won't let you steal" Yugo said firmly.

Adamai snorted. "Won't let me? Who died and made you boss?"

His hands clenched in his pockets, Yugo said "Give it back."

For a moment, the dragon stared at him, but in the end he just shrugged. "You're the guy who promised a girl a cloak."

Yugo watched his brother weave into the crowd. When Adamai was out of sight, he breathed out. He didn't want to yell at him. Hopefully, the dragon would come back, instead of leaving him alone in a strange town. Yugo rubbed at his suddenly chilled arms, and started walking, mind suddenly empty.

"Hey, watch it!" he dashed away and landed on the cobbles, or to be exact, the lower part of his back did. And his arm. Trying to straighten it, Yugo hissed.

"Are you all right?" A girl in a yellow dress put her basket aside and reached to help him up. A smell of fresh bread was coming from underneath the lid.

"Hungry?" the girl laughed. Yugo pressed a hand on his growling stomach. His cheeks felt hot.

"No, no" he hadn't really thought about it, but breakfast (rusks Elgin had in his sack and a handful of forest berries) was a long time ago.

"I haven't any money" he confessed. The girl nodded.

"I have to deliver these" she said, picking her basket up, "but if you come with me, maybe we'll find you some work."

Yugo rubbed his neck. "I can't bake... and in a couple of hours I'll have to go."

"In a couple of hours the fair will be over and we won't need delivery people."

He had no idea about baking, he knew no-one here, something was bound to go wrong.

"Well?"

Yugo got up, dusted himself off and went with her.

* * *

Shadofang, had she calmed down a little, would have to admit that she's been told, often, to go hang herself. Usually by handsome, morally unsteady men, in this last, too-late moment of clarity. Exactly the kind of men she liked.

But right now she was furious. Rightly! "Ingrate cra! After all I've done for you!"

It wasn't enough for the blonde to hang her on a broken branch so she'd be swinging around whenever wind blew (and this horrible string was itching!), no. She had to add insult to injury by ignoring the shushu completely. As soon as the smart-ass, the goody-two-shoes and the hatchling dragon were gone, before the shushu could choke on her protests (and now the wind pushed her right into the trunk!), that gal combed her hair with her fingers (of course she never thought to take a comb), braided it like some country hick and tied with a strip of cloth torn off her dress. Dress from the best tailor! It took Shadofang months of careful work before Ragnar (or Wagnar, whatever) finally invited the man to come.

Of course, as a shushu, Shadofang was all for destruction, but, Great Dragon! not like this! If she had her way, the dress would burn in a great fire, a conflagration that would devour the town and the woods, or it would have been shredded and tossed to the winds, or at least gnawed by a crocodile. After tearing out some grass in a more or less circular pattern, which gave Shadofang a little hope, that cra simply wiped her hands on the skirt. She searched under the trees and gathered a heap of dry twigs with peeling bark, before finally completing the catalogue of stains by sitting on the edge of the circle, blanket on her shoulders, resting her cheek on her knees.

Calm down, Shadofang said to herself, patience can work wonders.

"Maybe this dress is out of fashion" she began, but the cra turned away from her theatrically. Well, she'll be! Shadofang couldn't just allow that. If she swings, just a little bit... stupid wind, now you won't blow... Ah!

"There's mud in my mouth!" she tried to spit it out, but its own weight was pressing the ring into the mud. Finally a tug on the string pulled her out of this horrible mire.

"Yuck! Yew! It's all your fault! If you had treated- No! Not the tree again! Argh!"

This horrible, rude, blonde ingrate never even tried to show she's heard Shadofang's words! She wasted air, begging, arguing and describing all those lovely immoral delights, and what did the gal do but sit there, still like a statue, staring at the sticks.

Suddenly she pricked her ear. Then she rose. At last!

"I'm here!" Shadofang yelled, but she was looking at the road. Of course, these three... the shushu would roll her eyes, if she had any irises.

The smarty-pants was leading the group, nursing a huge tome and grinning like a bow-meow after a trip to the pantry. He was followed by the small boring one, also with a bundle in his arms, and finally, dragging his feet, in a cloud of dust, there was the dragon. In the falling darkness Shadofang couldn't be sure, but it seemed like he had a black eye. True, he'd always had these rouge-worthy blue shadows around his eyes, so she could be wrong.

"We're back!" the boring kid announced, walking up with this bundle of his and a smile that threatened to halve his head.

"Try them on" he said. "They're not really new... I mean..."

"Thank you very much, Yugo" said the cra, taking the bundle from him.


	8. The Field of Cawwots

As they walked up the hill, the forest turned more and more golden and pretty. Yugo got short of breath before they reached the top, but standing at it he felt light as a feather, like he could fly away.

There was green all around, at the feet of the hills it turned into a blanket of different-shaded patches, like the one Angelica made for him when he was little. Yugo looked at it for a while, standing on a sort of step made of soil that got rammed in between roots of a tree. The tips of his shoes didn't fit on it and hung over the void.

"Last one down is a gobbal!" Adamai yelled, swishing past him on these white wings like a giant mosquito. Yugo giggled.

He looked over his shoulder at Evangelyne, picking her way among pine cones and roots, and felt a pang of regret. He should have asked for shoes to give her. The white top turned a little too big, so the cra had borrowed a safety pin from elgin to keep it in place, and she was gripping the hem of her green skirt in her hand, but still, she smiled at Yugo every time their eyes met.

"Come, Yugo" said Elgin, who walked by her side "don't be a gobbal."

The boy laughed, rubbing his neck. He jumped off his small platform onto the slope and slid at least half a metre down before catching his balance and grabbing some branches to get safely down. There he waited for the grown-ups. Evangelyne, her cheeks pink, rolled her skirt up and tucked the hem into her belt to slowly, carefully walk down, with only a minimal help from the greenery. Elgin, his shoulders weighted with the constantly slipping sack, had a harder time of it, until he began balancing with his wings, but soon the entire team was safe, and only slightly battered, on the sandy patch at hill's feet.

Yugo was the first to get out of the woody shadem and before his eyes adjusted, he was lying, breathless, in the warm sand.

"Got ya!" Adamai triumphed.

"O, no, is this a dragon that fell a companion of mine?" shouted Elgin, taking his hat off and pressing it dramatically to his chest.

"Up you go!" with his other hand he pulled Yugo to his feet. "Be nice Adamai, or you'll get taken by Nox."

The dragon snorted and rolled his eyes, but the cra turned pale.

"Evangelyne?"

"It's nothing..."

"Nice sand, this" Adamai stretched out on it, hands under head. Elgin nudged him with the tip of his boot, walking by, and the dragon stuck out his tongue. Yugo was watching Evangelyne hastily tidy up her skirt. Shadofang's ring slipped out from under her shirt and glinted black on the white fabric.

"Yuck" the shushu said.

"Hurry up, princess" Elgin was standing on the path, tapping his boot on a marker stone. The cra blushed. Shadofang chuckled, prompting her to shake her head and join the eniripsa.

"Which road will we take?"

"This one, here. There aren't many villages in these parts, mostly fields, single farms, but in two or three days we should reach another range of hills" the scholar waved his hand in the direction the path led "then some forests and there we'll be, in Sadida."

The cra looked at the horizon, golden in afar. She nodded, took a deep breath and started ahead, her steps light on the sand.

* * *

"Who knew there even was this many cawwots" moaned Adamai, dragging his feet in the dust well behind the others. Both he and Evangelyne were carrying their cloaks, Yugo had pulled his jacket off and Elgin kept fanning himself with his hat.

They were following a path in-between two fields of fluffy, emerald green leaves, towards a house the sharp-eyed cra had seen in the distance and got laughed at by Shadofang. Now, shielding his eyes with his hand, Yugo could plainly distinguish the blue roof tiles in the shadow of a single tree that grew by the house. Several windows were glinting on the roof, and he thought he saw a veranda with ivy climbing the posts.

In front of the house, behind the house, and generally as far as the eye could see from where they were to the hills on the horizon cawwots grew, and among their fluffy leaves there was a man, jumping around frantically. He hit the plants with a stick, then spun it over his head, yelled, jumped up and down, made a jumpy step in a random direction and started over. Maybe this was some sort of heat-repelling magic, but Yugo doubted they could find a place for the night here.

Something hairy touched his ankle.

"Aw!"

"Eew, yuck, wodents!" Shadofang screeched. "They're so horrible!"

"Just like you" snapped Adamai.

A wave rippled the cawwot field when the small black animal darted among the plants. It waved on. Rubbing his forehead with a cold hand, Yugo leaned over.

"They're eating somebody out of house and home" he said.

Each cawwot had at least one wodent gnaw at it, sitting at its tail and making the leaves disappear.

"Monsters! Away! Away! " the stick whacked the ground just by Yugo's foot.

"Go away, little freaks!"

The hat-wearing man swung his stick. It should have knocked down a row of small heads, but only some leaves fell to the ground and the wodents were back at their feast in seconds.

"Hello, there" called Elgin.

"My cawwots!"

"Hello!"

The farmer stood up straight, clutching his stick.

"They'll eat all my crop!"

"Wanna bet?" Adamai stretched his fingers and dove into the greenery. "Ow! Get back here, monkey!"

"Adamai!" called Yugo. This field seemed odd - instead of glowing the healthy blue glow like the other fields they've passed, it was drowning in a sort of mist. He couldn't really tell the animals from the background.

"Hid in a hole" the dragon complained, untangling himself from the cawwots.

The farmer, with a sigh, scratched the back of his head.

"I guess they're done for today."

Yugo only became aware of the munching sound now, when it suddenly wasn't anymore. Just a single black wodent stood at the edge of the greenery, sniffing, and it jumped away when the stick swished.

"I've never seen wodents that follow a schedule" said Elgin, when the rustling died down.

The farmer shrugged.

"These ones are" he drew some circles in the air with his free hand "crazy. Hordes of them come, at the weirdest times of the day, but always just once a day, and then they vanish, just like that. I can't wrap my head around it."

Shadofang chortled, but the farmer wasn't looking at her.

"Maybe we could help?"

Everyone stared at Yugo, who made an instinctive step back, right into the field.

"I mean, erm..."

"Try" sighed the farmer. "It's not like you can make it worse."

* * *

He said his name was Daucus, and, when not chasing wodents with a stick, the farmer proved a really nice, hospitable man.

"When did it start? Not long ago" he spoke, putting a plate of cake on the wooden table, grey with frequent washing and conveniently located in the shade of an ivy pergola.

Disregarding Evangelyne's blush and Yugo's stammering, Elgin and Adamai readily accepted a meal at Daucus's house, freshly cooked by his wife Turgenia, a round woman with a sadida's dark complexion. At least the eniripsa took out his notebook and pen immediately after sitting down in the cool shadow, but the dragon took possession of the cawwot juice jug (which he normally hated), making Yugo's stomach twist with embarrassment.

"After the fair, definitely" said Daucus after a moment. "Do you know that place, Heather Mound? I go there every year with my cawwots and I win prizes."

"Don't you start, love" his wife said, pushing a slightly frosted glass towards Yugo.

"The little bastards come in droves They're not scared of anything. We've tried all the traps we could think of, we made sacrifices to Sadida and Osamodas-"

"They dug out a fence" Turgenia said. Yugo, his cheeks hot, sipped the juice, so cold it made his teeth ache, and stopped himself from drinking it all in one gulp. Adamai had orange moustache already.

"Yes, and they ate the roots of the hedge I planted to keep them away" sighed Daucus.

Elgin scratched his nose with the tip of the pen. "Do they always come from the same direction?"

"Never" the farmer shook his head. "I'm always surprised."

While the cake was very nice, it didn't help them reach any conclusions. Daucus and Turgenia were watching, with some scepticism, Elgin rummage in his sack, the rim of it touching his chin, and pull out a book after thick book.

" _The Taxonomy of Amakna Wodents_... no... _Wodent-keeping for Gain and Pleasure_ , no, although... _Anthology of Sung Verse_?"

The anthology landed on the table, rattling the empty glasses.

"I swear I had _The Handbook of Vermin Fighting_..." the eniripsa muttered. Adamai licked his lips, stretched and slid off the chair. "Well, do what you want, but I'd rather go and have a proper reconnaissance" and before Yugo had time to open his mouth, he ran and dived into the cawwot sea. Only the tips of his stick-like horns jutted out, green leaves swaying in their wake.

Turning the cool glass in his palms, the boy watched his brother explore the field. He felt oddly on edge... but it wasn't a completely new feeling. It was more intense than he knew it.

He glanced at Evangelyne, who was idly playing with the string on her neck, while Shadofang kept silent.

"Maybe we'll look around?" he asked.

The cra flinched, looked at her hand and let go of the string, getting up.

"Yes, let's."

"Just don't go too far" Turgenia advised, her gaze firmly on the wobbly tower of books on the table.

* * *

The yard was sand, dry and creaking underfoot. It was the first country house Yugo ever saw in his life, but having read about them, this seemed just right, and so did a wooden bucket in one corner and gardening (farming?) tools propped on the wall, a pitchfork, some spades, a hoe. The house was dragoturkey-shoe-shaped, with the opening towards the sun, and he felt his hair underneath the hat turn wet and sticky. Whew. Good thing he left his jacket on the veranda. Poor Evangelyne, though, was barefoot.

"Doesn't the sand burn your feet?"

The cra shook her head. Squatting, she examined something in a heap of wood by the wall.

Yugo looked towards the sun, his eyes almost closed, but all he could see was hot, stifling darkness with some lines of light here and there - but his other sight easily found Adamai.

"You come from Bonta, do I remember correctly?" the cra said. Yugo turned to her, rubbing his neck.

"Yes" his fingers stuck to the wet skin. Yuck. He wiped them on his trousers.

"But we'd have to go through Sadida anyway, right?"

She nodded and stood, wiping her palms.

"We've never travelled before, and I don't really know, but I hope we'll be able to write to mum from Sadida and explain, and maybe she'll come to get us, or-"

Evangelyne was worrying at her lip, and not listening, so Yugo drifted off. He moved back to the wall, a stone wall, much cooler than the sand. A thing was leaning against it, sort of a fork... Yugo remembered visiting the gardens. Pitchfork. The pitchfork was made of black metal, with an odd, flat round thing where it connected with the wooden handle, but pitchfork it was. Around it, especially around the round thing, there was a thick cloud of purpleness, so thick it was nearly black.

He didn't need to look back to know Shadofang was surrounded by the same thing.

"Yugo" Evangelyne whispered.

Behind the cra, who was slowly backing out towards him, he first saw a cloud of dust partially cover the sun, and then shadows of tiny, big-eared creatures emerged from it. A lot of shadows.

"They weren't supposed to come back today" he mumbled. Shadofang guffawed. The cloud around pitchfork pulsed in synch,

"If you want us to leave you alone, why surround us?" Yugo asked, and the cra stared at him over her shoulder.

"Erm..." unthinkingly, he rubbed his neck. "Watch out!"

The wodent she dodged rolled on the ground, hit its head into the wall and froze, stunned. And suddenly the black flowed off its fur, like so much ink, leaving a bedraggled brown critter to get up, wobble for a couple of steps and fall to the ground.

"Shadofang!" Evangelyne yelled, but the shushu said, cold as ice "My dear. I'm powerful enough to take over humans, why would I touch these despicable furry things?"

"Sorry" Yugo caught the cra's hand. He only had the one idea, and he didn't think too highly of it, but it was either that or waiting for the shushu-possessed wodents. He looked at the roof, gauging the distance. It should just take two jumps to get to the veranda, it was right on the other side.

So he opened a portal, pulling in the confused cra and the haunted pitchfork.

* * *

A thump and a moan turned Elgin's attention away from his sack. In front of the veranda, on the sand, Evangelyne was lying, staring at the sky, while Yugo, shifting from foot to foot, tried to watch her and shoot pleading looks at the eniripsa at the same time. He was clutching a black pitchfork with a tablet-shaped flat bit just above the handle.

"Uugh... I've no stomach and it just turned..." wailed Shadofang.

"What are you doing with my new pitchfork?" Daucus got up, but Yugo made a step backwards.

"No! I mean" he said "there's a shushu in it. Erm."

"Nonsense. I bought it at the fair, I dig compost with it!"

"How unhygienic!" screeched Shadofang. The farmer stared at the ring at Evangelyne's neck, as the girl sat up, massaging her forehead.

Yugo bit his lip.

"I think he's weaker than Shadofang" he said, and suddenly dropped the pitchfork, as if he only just understood what he was holding.

The eniripsa got up. From his hat, hung on the nearest chair, he took out his wand.

"Why would there be a shushu in my pitchfork?" groaned Daucus.

"Who knows. The thing is, how do we get rid of it. Hmm."

Turgenia, invisible behind the stack of books, squeaked

"They're back!"

"How" groaned the farmer, looking at the rows of black, red-eyed wodents which surrounded them.

Elgin drew several runes in the air.

"What's that supposed to do, smartypants?" mocked Shadofang.

Not much, actually, he thought, they were an anti-cold spell. But it did look professional.

"Yugo!" the boy was helping Evangelyne up, and trying not to touch her ring. He looked at the eniripsa.

"The shushu is in the pitchfork, right?"

Yugo nodded. Taking measured, self-assured steps, Elgin walked off the veranda and squatted on the sand, beside the farming tool. He picked it up and shook it, ignoring Yugo's muffled cry.

"Stop playing dead."

"Elgin!"

With a glance at the tightening circle of wodents, he added "We know you're in there."

"Ugh, you're no fun" the pitchfork said, hoarsely like it spent the last decade in taverns and inns. Elgin watched the round bit open and blink, and reveal an eye.

Daucus screamed. The books thudded off the table, and Elgin made a mental note to stop pulling them out when there's nowhere to stack them safely.

"Heh, heh, heh, good one" said shushu.

"What's up with the wodents?" Actually, Elgin could tell what it was (he knew a thing or two about shushu), he just needed more time.

"They were there."

"To clarify, I meant why use them to terrorize innocent farmers" said the eniripsa.

"Innocent? Heh! Ever been stuck into a steaming pile of compost?"

Ignoring Daucus's whining and Shadofangs guffaws, he asked "If they stopped that, would you leave them alone?"

"Kid, have you forgotten who you're talking with? Eh?"

Feigning sadness, he shook his head. "In that case I'll have to make use of the most secret knowledge passed down generations of eniripsae and send you back to Shukrute. Which will be a pain for everybody involved."

"Funny!" Shadofang chuckled. "Why won't you send me back?"

"Wouldn't you want to know."

"A bluff, that's what it is!"

"I have my reasons" Elgin winked at Evangelyne and Yugo, who were both staring at him like he was a book that started to tap-dance all of a sudden. He sent a silent prayer to the Lady of Words to keep their curiosity at bay.

"And the stronger the shushu, the longer it takes."

In Elgin's opinion, the inhabitant of the pitchfork was like a mosquito to Shadofang's fat gobbal. One element only, earth, judging by the greenish veins around the eye.

"Even this one would take me an entire day, and all he can do is possess a bunch of small furry critters."

Shadofang laughed, and the other shushu snorted "Watch it, or I'll possess you."

"Who's bluffing now? An analphabet would know you can't do this without my permission, while I'm conscious. But we could strike a deal, hmm?"

"No!" The shushu scrunched up his eye, being unable to turn red with anger. "The last smartass put me in a pitchfork!"

Ah-a!

"All you want is a new home, then. Couldn't you have just said?"

Elgin sat on the veranda steps, putting the pitchfork across his knees and bent backwards to get his sack. Turgenia, shaking like a leaf, pushed it towards him.

"What would you like? A pencase? A mirror? A knife?"

"No mirrors!" yelled the shushu.

"Most fun I had in a while!" Shadofang was laughing.

"Elgin!"

"I know what I'm doing, Yugo" one hand resting on the haunted tool, the eniripsa pulled a wodent away from his boot. It was still gnawing at a bit of shoelace.

"Got you now!" shushu shrieked, when Elgin put the wodent on his eye.

A flash.

"Mine!"

"Point to you, smartass" Shadofang said.

"Mine! Mine!" the shushu was screeching, jumping up and down on the fork.

"Daucus, a basket!" Elgin caught the wodent by the neck. "Keep him away from the ground at all times. Best take him to some priest of Eniripsa or Sacrier. And the pitchfork is safe to use."

The cawwots rustled as a bunch of completely normal brown wodents ran into it.


	9. Edges of Sadida

According to Elgin's map, they were practically on the threshold of Sadida. Yugo was starting to worry. As he walked, he recounted in his head all the stories Angelica told him about how she left... and Evangelyne seemed to turn paler with every step. Maybe it was the light. Their path, narrow and winding, led among silent firs trees whose branches intertwined and criss-crossed each other above, casting greenish shadow on everything. Shadofang never spoke. Adamai, wrapped in his cloak, trod on and growled every time a needle got in-between his scales.

Only Elgin kept his spirit, heading the group. Every now and then he stopped to unfurl the map and read it, squinting, moving the parchment back and forth and generally being silly. Or he would say something funny over his shoulder, and then Yugo would smile, just out of politeness. Then they would get going again.

The forest smelled wet, almost swampy, and the boy kept expecting the sound of rain.

"Come on, team!" called Elgin from the bend of the path where he stood. Green branches were fingering the top of his hat, and the dark jacket nearly merged with the shadows.

"Do you want to stay here forever? We're just outside a town!"

"Or a dump" Shadofang muttered, but Evangelyne simply walked faster, drawing her cloak about her.

"Why not go straight to Sadida?"

"We are" Yugo explained to the shushu "that's how the road goes."

"Adamai, keep up!" Elgin called before turning towards the dark forest and marching on sprightly.

The trees got sparser, but it was still just as dark as before. Yugo shot glances at the sky, darker and darker grey, and he was more and more worried, until he bumped into a wooden post.

"Watch out, eh?" Adamai pulled him up, then causally cracked the cartilage in his neck. "You always need lookin' after."

"Thanks" his cheeks warm, the boy looked at the post and saw a plank attached to it, greyish and streaked with green. Letters cut out in the wood said "Leaf Valley".

"That's the town?"

"Elgin and Evangelyne must be there already, looking for a place to spend a night."

Yugo nodded. A raindrop tapped his nose, then another, then next one and next one. Branches rustled.

* * *

The boy and the dragon, trying to shield themselves with their hands, ran forwards.

It was raining properly before they got to the first houses.

"Where's Elgin?" Yugo mumbled, rubbing his wet sleeves.

"Where's the inn?" grumbled Adamai. The rain was too heavy for him to fly up and see.

"Anyone living in there?"

Doubtful, thought Yugo. From underneath the nearest door a stream of water bubbled, forming a small cascade over the three stone steps. He could sense moss, lichens. It took a while before he found people. A pair of them, not far, he just couldn't see them for the rain. A bit further there was a larger group, but for now Yugo went towards the two, mud squelching underneath his shoes.

One of the pair was sitting on the stone threshold of a hut, a stuffed sack at his feet, rivulets of water running off the brim of his hat.

"I counted on him being here..." he said as Yugo approached.

"My friend settled in this town a couple of years ago" Elgin explained "and I hoped he'd host us for the night."

Seen up close, the hut turned out to be a small brick house, with an eniripsa's sign hanging on a single nail over the door, squeaking. There wasn't any roof, the door has been taken out of its hinges long ago.

Adamai rolled his eyes.

"So we're gonna just sit here till my scales rot? There are people there" and he stomped, or squelched, off.

"Fair point" Elgin got up, shook himself off and bent to pick his sack. "Ugh, heavy." He grunted, hoisting it.

"Where are those people?"

"There" both Yugo and Evangelyne pointed the same way. Apparently the cra sight worked through water. She blushed slightly.

* * *

Evangelyne closed the door behind her and shook the droplets off - only now, inside, she felt how thoroughly soaked she was. She barely even felt the cold from Shadofang's ring in comparison. Hand clenched on her cloak, the cra let Yugo pull her to the table in the corner, where Adamai was waiting, drumming his talons.

She wasn't very experienced when it came to inns, but this one seemed singularly unfriendly. The ice-cold stone floor hurt her bare feet, the only lighting were small, smoky lamps that hung over the tables and the bar, the timber frames in the walls black from soot. The room smelled stale. It was also empty of people.

"Hello!" called Elgin. He smacked the bar with an open hand, making some earthenware mugs jump and clink.

"Nobody here" the cra said softly.

"And who lit those lamps? Hello! Innkeeper!"

There was a beaded curtain in the kitchen door, just like in Sadida. Evangelyne felt dizzy and plunked onto a stool. So close...

She almost missed a movement behind the curtain.

"Elgin" she said, but a thick stick of wood was already out, followed by an ecaflip, his fur bristling.

"What?"

The eniripsa took a long, hard look at him. "I see the business is thriving."

The ecaflip lowered his stick with a squint.

"Who are you?"

"Travellers" Elgin locked his elbows on the counter, staring at the barman.

"Seeking accommodation."

"Accommodation...?" The cat blinked, as if he just woke from a dream. "That means... you'll pay?"

He laughed, a bit breathlessly, putting the stick away.

"Within reason" Elgin nodded.

"That's more than the locals pay" the ecaflip slicked down the fluffy fur between his ears.

The door groaned.

On instinct, Eva pulled back into the corner, as a group of enutrofs marched in, some carrying shovels. Water was pouring from their sparse hair and dirty-brown cloaks.

"Innkeeper!" the baldest one called, walking up to the bar. "Beer!"

Wordlessly, the ecaflip busied himself with mugs and barrels behind the counter.

"Found a nice vein?" asked the eniripsa.

"None of yer business, schoolman" another enutrof grumbled. This one only had a coin-sized bald spot, but he was holding a shovel and casting thuggish looks around.

Adamai sat up straight, looking at him, but Elgin just smiled and didn't budge.

"Congratulations" he said. Some of the enutrofs took their mugs to a table by the wall, but there was still a line for the harrassed-looking barman.

"Must stand to make a pretty kama" Elgin was still trying to strike a conversation.

"What's that to you?"

"The smartass's looking for trouble" Shadofang mumbled through Eva's thick cloak.

"Well, nobody likes to drink in silence, eh?" said the eniripsa. "It's time wasted without pleasure."

The enutrof who was just walking away from the counter turned and said "Tell Higgins to get 'imself some proper spies."

"Excuse me?"

"Stop actin' dumb" was the answer.

"Maybe that ain't an act!" somebody yelled and the whole troop of treasure-hunters laughed hoarsely.

"That's enough" Adamai was at the eniripsa's side before Eva and Yugo had time to react. Hands on his hips, he looked up, straight into the nearest enutrof's eye and growled "Pick on someone your size."

The treasure-hunter shrugged and raised his mug.

"I'm talking to you!" Adamai shook Elgin's hand off, flew up and sat on the counter with a clank of ceramic.

"Kiddo" an enutrof with a large gold earring caught his mug in the air. "Bored much?"

"Go back to mummy" said another.

Adamai turned bright red, surprising Evangelyne who thought dragon scales are opaque.

"And here it comes" sighed Shadofang.

* * *

Elgin cracked his knuckles and put a carefully calculated amount of force to set the table on its legs, the way gods intended. Something crunched. Immediately, the table toppled, hitting the dirt floor. Elgin's look full of scorn completely failed to move this dumb piece of wood.

The innkeeper stopped in the middle of pushing a heap of broken crockery towards the door. He rolled his eyes and went on. Elgin nodded. Mugs in shambles, furniture and walls blackened... a total and utter Brakmar.

Yugo stood by, staring at a sorry heap that used to be a chair, obviously trying not to cry.

"What" he swallowed before looking at Elgin, his eyes glistening and huge "what are they going to do with him?"

Wouldn't he want to know.

"I heard" he squatted, hand on the young eliatrope's shoulder, looking the boy in the eye and begging the goddess for help "that dragons can find treasure. Maybe they'll want to use him."

"Adamai... never looked for treasure..."

"Doesn't mean he can't." Elgin didn't think that was the enutrofs' agenda, but he really had no better idea.

"We'll think of something, Yugo" he said, standing up.

Shadofang cackled. Evangelyne cowered as if she'd been hit.

Having finished the tidying up, Elgin gave the innkeeper a handful of kamas and left into the rain, leaving Evangelyne to look after his sack and Yugo, who was wriggling on the last surviving chair.

"You'll make a hole in your trousers" Shadofang muttered.

The cra sent an apologetic smile towards the innkeeper, who stared a little. She touched the boy's hand. Yugo froze.

"I can sense him" he whispered "I know where he is."

He looked at Eva, his eyes glistening.

"He's fine."

"That's... good, isn't it?"

"He'll be right back, you'll see!"

None of them paid any attention to Shadofang's giggling through the cloak.

* * *

Adamai opened an eye, hissed, clutched his forehead and tried again, slower.

The greyish streaks condensed into walls, roughly hewn in stone. Here and there, on the tool-marks, there was a glint of light from the tiny window in the door. Slowly, trying to move his head as little as possible, the dragon sat up on the stone floor.

Where was he? It smelled like cellar in there. Adamai rested his back on the cold wall and made the following inference: stone walls, no windows, cheap wooden door, some boxes. Hasn't been aired since the Flood. Take it all together - he was fairly certain the place housed enutrofs, especially considering what little he remembered from before the light went out. Or before he went out.

He risked pulling himself upright with the help of the nearest box. Ugh. Took a while for his legs to stop shaking. Still, Adamai felt he must have forgotten something important, so he stared at the box, decided not to jump onto it and sat down, back to the wood, to rack his memory.

Yugo's worry, distinct, but distant, wasn't helping his focus. The dragon thought Yugo must be far away and felt odd pride for having worked that out. Far away? No wonder he's worrying, gotta get back and calm him down. Hmm."

Cheap wooden door...

* * *

Yugo's attention was squarely on the annoyingly immobile wooden door. From time to time, the innkeeper walked in front of them, grating on the boy's nerves, and even Evangelyne went by once or twice - but that was all. The door looked as if it wasn't going to open, ever.

"Yugo?"

He flinched under the hand on his shoulder.

"Won't you eat anything?"

He shook his head. Evangelyne was looking at him.

"Adamai's far away, but..."

"I'm sure he'll be touched by your sacrifice."

Eva flicked the ring, which glittered purple.

"I'm not hungry" said Yugo, sitting up straight. Suddenly he smelled nettle soup, the sort of food that Angelica used to make for them when they were small and claim they had to eat full bowls to grow healthy. Yuck. Where did this horrible thing come from?

The door opened, letting in a wet gust of wind and Elgin, who closed it, leaned his back on the door and sneezed.

"Where have you been? What were you doing?" Yugo hasn't been following the eniripsa's trail, but he'd know if Elgin had found Adamai, or came near.

"Recon. Oh, soup! Is it hot?"

He tossed his hat onto a side table, put his wet jacket away and jumped on a stool by the counter.

"I'm so hungry I could eat a dragoturkey."

"You haven't found Adamai" said Yugo when the ecaflip, grumbling, slammed a pot on the bar.

Evangelyne came in, carrying four bowls and spoons.

"No" the eniripsa admitted, reaching for one.

"Were you looking?" if that wasn't someone else, if it wasn't really important, Yugo would never be so rude. His cheeks burned, but Adamai needed help.

"Oof" the eniripsa said, spoon in mouth.

"Elgin."

"Local speciality?"

"Sadidan" Evangelyne, who sat at Yugo's other side, sighed, She blew at her bowl.

"Very healthy."

"No doubt... Yugo, stop tugging my sleeve."

"Have you looked for Adamai?" the eniripsa gave him an unfocused look, but he was insistent.

"I started" Elgin stirred his soup, explaining "Looked around, asked people. Not many to ask, honestly. The place's in steady decline ever since Sadida closed its borders."

Paying no attention to the innkeeper's ironic snort or to Evangelyne, who put her spoon away and stared at her knees, he went on "All that's left are the enutrof mines. Two separate groups digging the same deposit from two sides, until they meet, and then-"

"Rip each other's pouches" the ecaflip muttered, "everyone knows that. And who's gonna have to rebuild the inn?"

He whistled through his teeth like and angry kettle. Elgin nodded.

"I met several in the hardware store, but not the ones who've... been here earlier. They said something about the ore getting scarce."

"What did you go to the hardware store for?" said Yugo, nonplussed.

"It's the only store in here. I shared some news." He winked, but Yugo kept staring at him, uncomprehending, so the eniripsa just shrugged and busied himself with the soup.

"What news?"

"About their competitors unfair advantage."

Judging by her face, Evangelyne understood about as much as Yugo had, which was little. Except for that - Elgin never looked for the dragon. He never tried.

* * *

Author's note: And that's it, I'm afraid. The edit-as-I-go method turns out to be the wrong one for me, and the overall quality of the story definitely suffered, along with my motivation to continue it. Might pick it up someday, but right now... erm. No. Sorry for leaving you like this, especially Ragin12, espersquad and silentcat13 who were nice enough to follow the story (I don't have that much confidence in myself!). It has simply withered up and died.


End file.
